IUCN Criticises Swiss Wolf Culls 2025
Switzerland stands at a turning point in wildlife management. In 2025, new hunting regulations are once again set to come into force, permitting the large-scale killing of wolves (Canis lupus) — even without documented evidence of concrete damage. This threatens to produce an ethical, ecological and legal fiasco whose negative repercussions extend far beyond the country's borders.
The wolf is back in Switzerland — a conservation success story, one might think.
Yet barely has the species re-established itself than politics has fallen back into old patterns. Rather than pursuing scientifically grounded coexistence, the culling of wolves has become the default solution. Under the new hunting regulations, up to two thirds of juvenile animals could be killed — regardless of whether they have ever caused any damage. Entire packs may be wiped out.
What many people do not know: this policy is not merely tolerated by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) under the leadership of Katrin Schneeberger and the cantonal hunting authorities — it is being actively driven forward by them. And this, despite the fact that it stands in clear contradiction to the Bern Convention, an international treaty that Switzerland ratified in 1982.
Swiss practice works in precisely the opposite direction: cantons apply for preventive culls, and the FOEN approves them even when no damage has been documented. In some cases, entire packs are wiped out, including juveniles — a practice that would not be permitted in any EU country.
Switzerland is systematically violating both the spirit and the letter of the Bern Convention, says an international conservation lawyer who wishes to remain anonymous. The FOEN's approvals lend legitimacy to a policy that is highly problematic under international law.
The FOEN regularly invokes “cantonal sovereignty” and “regional room for manoeuvre.” In reality, however, these amount to politically motivated concessions designed to relieve the pressure exerted on federal and cantonal authorities by hunting lobbies and agricultural associations.
Instead of acting as a guardian of nature and species protection, the authority is increasingly operating as an enabler of a culling policy that is scientifically untenable. Critical specialists within the administration report political interference and the censorship of scientific assessments that do not fit the narrative of “damage prevention.”
Several cantons permit the use of thermal imaging and night-vision devices during wolf hunts — methods explicitly prohibited under Article 8 of the Bern Convention. This disregards European animal protection standards that are supposed to serve as minimum requirements.
The FOEN has so far responded with silence — despite being obligated in its role as enforcement and supervisory authority to prevent or sanction violations.
Experts from the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) are now sounding the alarm: such interventions threaten the genetic stability of the Alpine population and could create so-called “demographic black holes” — regions in which wolves are eradicated and migration movements are disrupted.
The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 requestsin a motion at its meeting in Abu Dhabi, from 9–15 October, that the Director General and IUCN members call on Switzerland to amend its hunting regulations to ensure that wolf and wildlife management is consistent with the best available scientific knowledge and international obligations, and maintains viable populations of wolves, ibex, beavers and protected species; and to consistently apply the precautionary principle of in dubio pro natura.
The IUCN and several environmental lawyers are currently preparing resolutions and legal steps to remind Switzerland of its obligations. IUCN Resolution 142 (Abu Dhabi 2025) explicitly calls for wolf management in Switzerland to comply with the best available scientific knowledge and international obligations.
International legal obligations are being disregarded
Switzerland has committed itself under the Bern Convention to maintaining the favourable conservation status of strictly protected species. Culling is only permitted when serious damage has been demonstrated, no alternatives exist, and the survival of the population is not at risk (Art. 9). Yet the new practice turns these conditions on their head: culls are to be carried out preventively — that is, before any problem even exists. This effectively reverses the protection principle into its opposite.
This raises questions about the legality and ethical justifiability of such hunting methods.
Science versus Politics
Numerous studies show that destabilising functioning wolf packs through hunting leads to more livestock depredation — not less. When experienced animals are absent, social structures collapse, and inexperienced young wolves venture closer to herds more frequently. Nevertheless, political decision-makers ignore these findings and argue in terms of “security” and “acceptance.” The price: a setback of decades in nature conservation and in Switzerland’s credibility as an environmentally conscious country.
Alternatives have long been on the table
Successful projects in numerous countries demonstrate that non-lethal measures work:
- well-trained livestock guardian dogs,
- electric fences, and
- targeted support for farmers who prioritise prevention over retaliation.
The IUCN therefore calls on Switzerland to prioritise these instruments and treat lethal interventions as an absolute last resort.
Ethics, Science, and Responsibility
The current trajectory reveals a deeper problem: the politicisation of wildlife management. Instead of scientific evidence and ethical deliberation, populist demands and lobbying interests are setting the course.
The wolf is more than an animal caught in conflict — it is a litmus test for our capacity to engage with wilderness and responsibility. If Switzerland now pursues a path of sanctioned culling, it endangers not only a species, but also the credibility of its entire nature conservation system.
The planned wolf culls represent a regression to an outdated mindset: control instead of coexistence, politics instead of science. Switzerland has the opportunity – and the obligation – to demonstrate that modern species protection is grounded in knowledge, ethics, and responsibility. Anything less would be a betrayal of nature, of international commitments, and of the idea of respectful coexistence between humans and wildlife.
The FOEN and the cantonal hunting authorities are not victims of political constraints – they are actors who, through their actions, are undermining international environmental law. What is being sold as a protective measure is in reality a massive step backwards in European species conservation.
When federal and cantonal authorities themselves become part of the problem, international oversight is needed. Because conservation that is guided by political calculation not only loses its credibility –
it loses its soul. Albert Rösti is driving nature conservation into the ground.
Participate: Due to the catastrophic policies of Federal Councillor Albert Rösti (SVP), we urge you to submit a petition to your municipality requesting exemption from federal and cantonal taxes on the grounds of the recently approved wolf culls in Switzerland. You can download the template letter here: https://wildbeimwild.com/ein-appell-fuer-eine-veraenderung-in-der-schweiz/
